Senator: Drought, water should finally wake up Texans

High drop out rates have not grabbed the attention of enough Texans; nor have high teenage pregnancy rates; nor has traffic congestion.

But the continuing and severe drought should, state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, told the Metropolitan Breakfast Club Wednesday on the University of Texas at Austin campus.

“This drought ought to get our attention,” Watson said.

How long will the drought last? What about the state’s future water supply? What about more fires? How about the coming water fights between cities and downstream rice farmers?

Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin

“What have we done to prepare?” Watson asked before quickly answering his own question: “There’s not a good answer to that.”

Texas has no state plan for water conservation. And the 14-year-old state water plan has little or no funding.

“I am very concerned about the fact that we are not doing what we should be doing about our infrastructure,” Watson told the weekly breakfast gathering. “We have dug this hole in part because we have not been honest and candid about what it costs to be a growing state.”

Gov. Rick Perry and other state leaders accurately point out Texas’s growing population – much of it coming from folks moving to the state. Perry brags that people are “voting with their feet” as they head to Texas.

Legislators approved a statewide water plan in 1997 with an overall price tag of about $200 billion (it costs up to $2 billion to design and build a single reservoir). So far, the state has raised only about $4 billion in those 14 years since the water plan turned into law.

Texans also can expect traffic gridlock to worsen. For the first time ever, state lawmakers this year appropriated more cash to pay for debt service on road bonds ($800 million a year) than to pay for actually building new roads ($600 million a year).

The gasoline tax pays for road maintenance and construction, but has not increased in 20 years. Gas tax revenue peaked in 2008 and will likely continue to decline as more fuel-efficient vehicles hit Texas roads and highways.

Watson conceded that many Texans loathe paying tolls.

“When you are sitting there in traffic, you have to ask, how do you want to pay for it?” he said.

When an audience member asked the senator about the best way to address the state’s growing transportation and water needs, Watson suggested that it might be easier for him to talk about “that Israeli-Palestinian thing.”

Texans should make political candidates and elected officials accountable, Watson said, and not let them get away with promising to address the state’s infrastructure problems with tax cuts or on promises “not to raise your taxes.”

“You can’t get something for nothing,” he reminded the audience.

Watson also described the state’s structural budget deficit that will likely result in more grim budget making when lawmakers return for the 2013 legislative session.

But, the former Austin mayor did not deliver all gloom and doom. He optimistically laid out a 10-yar plan for Austin and central Texas to develop a medical school and health science center. The largely Austin audience applauded.